US to inject $1.6bn into rare earths miner for 10pc stake, Financial Times reports

Published January 26, 2026
Workers transport soil containing rare earth elements for export at a port in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, China on October 31, 2010. — Reuters/File
Workers transport soil containing rare earth elements for export at a port in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, China on October 31, 2010. — Reuters/File

NEW YORK: The United States is planning to inject $1.6 billion into Oklahoma-based miner USA Rare Earth and will receive a 10 per cent stake in the company, the Financial Times reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The government investment and a separate $1 billion private financing deal are slated to be announced on Monday, the report said.

The White House and USA Rare Earth did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

The government would receive 16.1 million shares in the rare earths company, along with warrants for a further 17.6m, both priced at $17.17, the report said.

Government investment and separate $1 billion private financing deal slated to be announced on Monday, report says

Washington said in December last year it was planning more “historic deals” with the US mining sector to increase domestic production of lithium, rare earths and other minerals used for national defence and rely less on China, which has used its minerals prowess as leverage in trade negotiations.

Last year, the administration took equity stakes in MP Materials, Lithium Americas and Trilogy Metals.

The deal with USA Rare Earth was “focused on onshoring critical and strategic minerals essential to the semiconductor supply chain and US national security,” the FT quoted an official in the US Commerce Department’s CHIPS office, which provides incentives for investment and equipment in the US, as saying.

The company has also brought in Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment banking and brokerage firm chaired by Brandon Lutnick, the son of US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, to lead efforts to raise more than $1bn in fresh equity, the FT said.

USA Rare Earth has been developing a mine in Sierra Blanca, Texas and a neo magnet manufacturing facility in Stillwater, Oklahoma, which is expected to go commercial in the first half of 2026.

The company, which has a market capitalisation of $3.45bn, has emerged as one of the more large-scale US neo magnet manufacturers. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2026

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